Nick Diaz ‘s Biggest Obstacle Against BJ Penn Is Respect

UFC welterweight fighter Nick Diaz appeared on Inside MMA this week to discuss his fight this weekend against BJ Penn at UFC 137. Diaz, who was originally scheduled to fight Georges St. Pierre, says one of his biggest obstacles in this fight will be overcoming the respect he has for his opponent.

“My biggest obstacle is overcoming my own personal faith in B.J. Penn. I don’t look up to a lot of guys, but I looked up to B.J. Penn for a long time. He came from my school, he came from my academy, whether he says he does or doesn’t. I actually had his first mixed martial arts fight on video — I don’t even know if he’s ever seen it. I had it on a cassette tape and I used to watch it before anyone ever saw him fight in the UFC. We’ve trained together, too. So that’s the difficult part about this fight.”

He added, “It’s probably going to be a lot harder for me to fight this guy because, a guy like Georges St. Pierre is going to go out their and hold him, stall to win rounds, but I go out there and fight. I wouldn’t have picked this fight if I had my choice, that’s for sure.”